In recent years it has become increasingly clear to me that I need to make an official bucket list. I find that I'm terrible at achieving goals - especially goals I never set. Therefore I feel it is time to make these goals official. There are a few qualities I want for my bucket list. First, nothing too generic. I don't want a bunch of stuff that generally everyone would put on their list if there is enough room. It needs to be something specific to me. Second, many items need to be fairly difficult to achieve. There obviously will be a few simpler ones, since there are some relatively simple things that I really, really want to do. But on the whole, I'd like to make a list of non-easy things that I really want to do. Third, it all has to be at least possible. Difficult, but possible. Would I love to climb Everest? Sure - but I can't. I'm out of shape and sweat too much to be able to survive in that kind of cold. Won't make the list. With those general rules in mind, here are the first 15 things I can think of for my bucket list. Notice these are not numbered. No one thing will be given priority over another on the list, thus no numbering.
Play a round of golf with a current or former U.S. President (I don't care about his or her political affiliation - it's about the office, not the occupant)
Go to a Super Bowl the Lions are playing in (obviously this is contingent on them making a Super Bowl during my lifetime at a time in which I can afford it)
Have something I wrote published in a widely read publication
Attend an annual meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers
Get a hole in one in both regular golf and disc golf
Visit 6 of the 7 continents (I hate cold too much to care about visiting Antarctica)
Eat a Kobe steak in Kobe, Japan
Play a round of golf on the Old Course at St. Andrews
Compete against a professional athlete in the sport at which he or she is a professional
Shoot a bull elk large enough that it makes sense to mount, and have it mounted
Go on one legitimate, well-studied, well-planned, well-funded, extended treasure hunt
I'm sure there are a ton of things I've forgotten or just never thought of, but I think this is a good start. Ideally I'd like my bucket list to get up to 25 items, so if any of you have any good ideas to add, please share!
As it turns out, I've been under a horribly mistaken impression. I was always taught that golf is a gentleman's sport. It's a sport where one both learns and demonstrates self-control, perseverance, and perhaps most of all patience. At least in Missoula it appears that these are merely romantic notions that no golfer actually adheres to. How do I know this? Well, I'll tell you.
This is decidedly not the University of Montana Golf Course
I've golfed a number of times this year at the University of Montana's Golf Course. It's a crappy little course, to be sure, but enough that one would at least expect a traditional golf experience. One would be expecting too much if he expected this. Each of my last two trips there I've been hit by golf balls coming off the clubs of the group immediately behind me: once in the leg on the fly from a drive (leg still hurts), and once off a bounce where I was able to swat it away. I wouldn't blame you if your first reaction is to think that perhaps I'm just such a slow golfer that no one can possibly blame them for their impatience. But no, in fact everyone on the course had been waiting at pretty much every hole both times. Both times, the only reason I was within range of their balls was that I had been waiting for the group ahead of me. I, of course, cheerily pulled out my 3-hybrid and hit their balls right back at them. I even yelled "fore" once.
If anyone else watched The Players Championship this last weekend, you may have been as stunned as I was at the incredible impatience of the fans while waiting for Kevin Na to get past his yips. At times he was taking a full minute to take his swing due to the immense pressure of the moment. Fans began taunting him, singing various songs with "na, na, na" in them. One "fan" even ran up to him and told him he better not choke because he has $2000 bet on him. This, of course, made everything better. Na shot a 76 on Sunday and finished out of contention.
Obviously the Na situation was an extreme, but I think it illustrates a point. Too many people just go to the course to hack around and get done as fast as possible. They bring their 6-pack (or worse, their Evan Williams, which some idiots we got paired with earlier this year did) and wreck their golf carts. Where's the respect for the game?
I'm reminded of this great video that Ben Crane, the world's 50th ranked golfer, once made about learning to play fast golf:
Golf looks pretty ridiculous when played fast. It's really sad, because golf can and should be the most relaxing and laid back sport on earth. If you've got somewhere to be, just don't golf. It's really that simple. If you can't wait an extra 60 seconds to let people get out of range you have no business stepping foot on a golf course. If a guy is struggling mentally, as in the case of Na, no one feels worse about that than him. There's absolutely no reason for anyone else to be impatient about it.
In lieu of a good concluding salvo, I simply ask (in case I run into the situation again): what should be the etiquette if the group behind you hits you because they were too impatient to wait? I contend that the gentelmanliness of the game can be set aside in these situations in order to take (at least) one solid attempt at returning the favor.
In recent years it has become increasingly clear to me that I need to make an official bucket list. I find that I'm terrible at achieving goals - especially goals I never set. Therefore I feel it is time to make these goals official. There are a few qualities I want for my bucket list. First, nothing too generic. I don't want a bunch of stuff that generally everyone would put on their list if there is enough room. It needs to be something specific to me. Second, many items need to be fairly difficult to achieve. There obviously will be a few simpler ones, since there are some relatively simple things that I really, really want to do. But on the whole, I'd like to make a list of non-easy things that I really want to do. Third, it all has to be at least possible. Difficult, but possible. Would I love to climb Everest? Sure - but I can't. I'm out of shape and sweat too much to be able to survive in that kind of cold. Won't make the list. With those general rules in mind, here are the first 15 things I can think of for my bucket list. Notice these are not numbered. No one thing will be given priority over another on the list, thus no numbering.
